New Handmaiden for the Lord

Anna-Joy Naomi Litchfield was born this morning around 9am Irish time.  She is 6 pounds, 8oz, and has a good amount of brown or auburn hair.  Mama and baby are doing well.  Now, doesn't this mean I need to start looking at plane tickets to Ireland??  That's my job, right??
Anna-Joy is our 6th grandchild and 2nd granddaughter.  The 7th will arrive this year as well.  Woohoo!

Anna-Joy on the Way

I talked to Jordan this morning and they had just left doctor's office.  The doctor said it was time to take the baby so Naomi will be admitted today, and they will do the C-section tomorrow morning.  

Green Card Progress

Chet and Mai had an interview yesterday with Immigration Services regarding her green card.  The hospital had started the process last fall.  We were hoping she would get approval at that meeting.
Here to find out that the wrong form was used so it will now be another 2- 6 months plus more cash before a card is issued. This is disappointing to us, but it is encouraging that the officer sounded positive about the end result.  It has also been encouraging that Mai now wants to be Chet and with us.  Praise the Lord!

Visa Progress - through Prayers Answered!

A little over a week ago we had been waiting for a couple months - and were still waiting - for our visa papers from the language school in India to arrive. We then received an email from a student at the school who was communicating for the tutor there, Rolee, since her  internet was having problems. Johnny, the contact person, told us that Rolee had the papers, but that she wouldn't be sending them until May or June, since she didn't want us to start the visa process sooner than that. This was the third delay we had had, and we were getting frustrated. Especially since other travel plans depended on us getting our visas, and the airline tickets keep rising as we get closer to our departure date. So Andrew wrote Johnny back, expressing our concerns, and we then mentioned the situation as a prayer request to several people and to the church we were speaking at. Just a few days later, another email came from Johnny, and this one had way better news! He said that Rolee was very apologetic after hearing our concerns, and would give the papers to Johnny to scan and send to us. That same day, after waiting for months, we received the scanned copies of our visa request forms from the language school! We are so thankful for people's prayers and for the Lord's quick answer to those prayers. Andrew is getting the scanned papers together today to send off to the agency in Chicago to request our visas, so we would appreciate your continued prayers in the next few days as they review or papers there. Hopefully we will be posting more news soon of the next developments.

Our Move and the church in Maine

We are now living in Defiance.  We had wonderful friends and family who helped us move.  Don has a truckload to get out of the pole barn yet this week.  It will be nice to worry about only one house for awhile! Although I am thinking of getting another one soon, but it will be much closer to the house we're now in and I won't feel like I'm moving at the same time I'm fixing up as I have with the houses in New Haven and Defiance.
God is continuing to help in Maine.  Some of the ones who left the Holdeman church have been excommunicated and the rest are on repentance except for one lady.  There is a third family who has started attending with Jake's group.  They haven't been Holdeman for some time, but there is a connection in the past, I believe.  They are Canadian and the primary language of at least the parents is French.  They can understand a fair amount of English and the 5 children speak English well.  It is amazing to see that this group of believers was just 6 people a couple months ago, but now is 22.  Praise the Lord.  With midweek and Sunday services, they rotate around to the different homes for the meetings.

Arm therapy

Charles is going to Taiwan, I believe, to get therapy for his arm.

Funeral

Neighbor Tom passed away last Tuesday.  Don has the funeral which is Friday at 11am.  Pray for the Lord to work in the family.